Fatal car crashes in Peoria, AZ: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 85 fatal crashes inside Peoria, in which 92 people died. The roads with the most were State Route 101 with 11 fatal crashes, Olive Ave with 9 and Peoria Ave with 7.

Filing deadline, fault rule, insurance and the court for a crash in Peoria: Peoria, AZ injury guide.

Peoria's yearly toll climbed through 2022 and then eased. Fatal crashes rose from 12 in 2020 to 17 in 2021 and 21 in 2022, then fell back to 17 in 2023 and 18 in 2024. The deadliest year was also 2022, with 26 people killed, and the five-year totals are 85 fatal crashes and 92 deaths. These figures come from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which logs every crash on a public road in the country where a person died within 30 days. NHTSA's 2024 data is its Annual Report File, a first release that can be revised.

Peoria is eighth by deaths among the 121 Arizona cities and towns with fatal crashes in these records. The five highest tolls belong to Phoenix (1,428 deaths), Tucson (675), Mesa (297), Glendale (215) and Tempe (127), and two more places fall between Tempe and Peoria. Maricopa County, which includes Peoria, recorded 2,854 fatal crashes and 3,053 deaths over the five years, so the city's 85 crashes are 3 percent of the county total.

State Route 101 tops Peoria's roads table with 11 fatal crashes and 11 deaths from 2020 through 2024, the latest in 2024. Olive Ave follows with 9 crashes and 9 deaths, and Peoria Ave with 7 crashes and 7 deaths. 107th Ave had 5 fatal crashes but 9 deaths, more deaths per crash than any other listed road, and State Route 74 had 5 crashes and 5 deaths. N 75th Ave had 4 crashes and 5 deaths, Northern Ave 4 and 4, and State Route 303, US-60 and 83rd Ave had 3 each.

Nine of the ten roads had a fatal crash as recently as 2024; 83rd Ave's most recent was in 2021. Together the ten roads account for 54 of the 85 crashes, 64 percent, and 59 of the 92 deaths; the other 31 crashes happened on roads outside the table. The ranking shows where crashes were recorded, not why they happened, and a road's rank says nothing on its own about who was at fault in any one crash.

Peoria's crashes split almost evenly between day and night. FARS codes 41 of the 85 in daylight and 42 after dark, 36 of those on roads with street lighting and 6 on unlit roads; 1 happened at dusk. The evening had the most, 29 crashes between 6 p.m. and midnight, followed by 27 between noon and 6 p.m., 15 between 6 a.m. and noon and 13 between midnight and 6 a.m. Saturday and Thursday had 15 fatal crashes each, and Wednesday the fewest, 7.

Clear weather was recorded for 78 of the 85 crashes, 92 percent; 5 happened under clouds and 1 in rain. In 47 crashes the first harmful event was not a collision with another vehicle in transport, a FARS term that takes in vehicles stopped in the roadway as well as moving ones: the first thing struck was a pedestrian in 19, a curb in 8 and another fixed object in 10 more, and 5 began with a rollover. Among the collisions between vehicles in transport, 24 were angle crashes, where one vehicle strikes the side of another, 5 were head-on and 5 rear-end.

Thirty-seven crashes, 44 percent, happened at an intersection or on an approach to one, and 38 were away from any junction. Four were coded at or related to an entrance or exit ramp. Forty-five crashes involved a single vehicle, 36 involved two and 4 involved three or more. At intersections, fault usually turns on who had the right of way, so signal timing records and nearby camera footage are worth requesting early, before they are overwritten.

Most of the people killed were drivers or passengers. Of the 92 deaths, 58 were drivers and 13 passengers, 71 in all, and 22 of the people killed were on a motorcycle or moped, 24 percent of all deaths. The other 21 were outside a vehicle: 19 pedestrians, 1 bicyclist and 1 person on a personal conveyance, as FARS calls it. By crash, 21 of the 85 involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle, 25 percent.

Motorcycle and pedestrian claims each raise their own questions. A rider's claim often turns on speed, visibility and whether a driver turned or pulled out across the rider's path, and a pedestrian's on where the person was crossing and the lighting. Drivers and passengers hurt by another driver claim against that driver's liability insurance. When a crash killed someone, a wrongful death claim, brought on behalf of the survivors, may be possible; in Arizona its two-year deadline runs from the death rather than the injury (A.R.S. § 12-542(2)).

Here is a hypothetical with simplified numbers. You are driving through a Peoria intersection in daylight when a driver who ran a red light strikes the side of your car, an angle crash. You have $60,000 in medical bills and $20,000 in lost wages, and a jury sets your pain and suffering at $20,000, making $100,000 in damages. The other driver's insurer claims you were speeding and should carry 25 percent of the fault.

Arizona's pure comparative negligence rule reduces your award by your share of fault and has no cutoff point. At 25 percent, $100,000 becomes $75,000. Even if a jury put 80 percent of the fault on you, you would still recover $20,000, where a state with a 51 percent bar would award nothing. Because each percentage point costs $1,000 here, evidence of your speed and the signal timing still matters.

Next comes the question of who pays. In Arizona, an at-fault state, the other driver's liability insurer is first in line, and the minimum policy Arizona requires, 25/50/15, pays up to $25,000 to one person hurt, $50,000 in total to everyone hurt and $15,000 toward damaged property. Against your $75,000 recovery, a minimum policy would leave $50,000 unpaid. Underinsured motorist coverage you bought for yourself, or a second party who shares the blame, may cover part of that, depending on the policies and the facts.

Arizona's reporting duty is immediate. Under A.R.S. § 28-666, the driver in a crash that injures or kills anyone must give notice immediately, by the quickest means of communication, to the local police inside a city or town, the county sheriff or the nearest highway patrol office. Drivers do not file their own written report; the officer who investigates writes it. In a crash that damages only property, drivers must stop and exchange information or notify the owner.

• Call 911 if anyone is hurt; Arizona requires immediate notice to police in an injury crash, and the officer who investigates writes the report.
• Photograph the traffic signals, turn lanes and skid marks from where each car stopped; 37 of Peoria's 85 fatal crashes were at an intersection or on an approach to one.
• If a motorcycle was involved, note the rider's lane, the bike's damage and any turning vehicle; people on a motorcycle or moped were 22 of the 92 killed in Peoria.
• Request footage from cameras at nearby shops and homes in the first days, since recordings are often kept only briefly.
• Keep every medical bill and appointment note from the first visit on; insurers often point to a delay in treatment to question an injury.
• Get a copy of the crash report from the agency that investigated; the Arizona Department of Public Safety's records page covers crashes its troopers investigated.

Because Peoria is in Maricopa County, an injury lawsuit from a crash in the city would normally be filed in the Maricopa County Superior Court. Not every case lands there; some are filed in another county or in federal court, and an attorney can identify the proper court. Under A.R.S. § 12-542, Arizona generally gives an injured person two years from the date of injury to sue, a limit called the statute of limitations. Most claims end in a settlement with an insurer, but a lawsuit filed after the two years have passed will generally be dismissed.

Shorter and longer clocks apply in some cases. A claim against a city, county, school district or state agency has its own deadline: it must be filed with that government body within 180 days (A.R.S. § 12-821.01(A)). For an injured child, the clock pauses until 18, and then the full period runs (A.R.S. § 12-502). If you were hurt while working, Arizona's workers' compensation law calls for reporting the injury to your employer “forthwith” (A.R.S. § 23-908(E)), meaning right away, and the Industrial Commission of Arizona handles the claim, which must be filed within one year.

Arizona's pure comparative rule is what keeps the driver in the Peoria example from losing everything at 80 percent fault: the award falls to $20,000 but does not disappear. A state with a 51 percent bar would end the claim once fault passed 50 percent. Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia follow contributory negligence, which can bar an injured person found even slightly at fault. At the insurer's proposed 25 percent, a 51 percent bar state would also award $75,000, but under contributory negligence even that share could leave nothing.

Arizona's at-fault system puts the other driver's liability insurer first in line, which is why the minimum limits in the example matter. Had the crash happened in a no-fault state such as Florida, Michigan, New York or New Jersey, your own policy would generally pay your medical bills first, without regard to fault. Deadlines change too: Tennessee allows one year for most injury claims, while Arizona generally allows two years to sue and requires a claim against a city, county, school district or state agency to be filed with that government body within 180 days.

Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, meaning their fee is a percentage of any recovery; ask how costs are handled before signing. Ask Legal Matters is a personal injury lead-generation service that collects free case review requests from injured people in the United States and shares them with independent attorneys and law firms. It is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in Arizona, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists. If you were hurt in a crash in Peoria, you can request a free case review.

• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Yuma?
• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Goodyear?
• Which U.S. cities had the most fatal car accidents in 2023?
• What should you do after a car accident?

More on this type of claim: Car accidents: evidence, deadlines and when to ask an attorney.

• Peoria, Arizona: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Motorcycle Accident Claims: Overcoming Rider Bias and Recovering Fully

Need local rules? Choose your state from the injury law guides hub or read the statute of limitations by state.